I have a single bowl stainless sink. I hand wash in a dish pan and I have a small dish drainer that hangs over the sink at the other end. It keeps the counters nice and neat.

I hand wash very few things -- a couple of pans and hand-painted bowls. I wash them with a soapy sponge, rinse, and lay on a dishtowel to dry. No washtub, no rack.

I have a 32" double farmhouse sink and have always had double bowl sinks. I like being able to have one tub full of hot soapy water and the other bowl opening for rinsing and drying. I've been using the farmhouse for about 5 months. The sink is cracked and needs to be replaced. Since I have to buy a new one anyway, I am thinking I made a mistake buying the double bowl because it is hard to wash cookie sheets, big fry pans, etc, because I am always trying not to bang the pots into the edge of my sink or soapstone. I wasn't that careful with my other cast iron and stainless sinks.

I also have the problem that whenever I put clean dishes on one side to dry, someone always turns the faucet on the them or puts dirty ones on top. My DH and I battle this all the time. He says drying dishes are supposed to be on the counter or dried and put away.

Due to the size constraints and trying to be careful of the edge all the time, I vote for a big single bowl and dry on the counter or with a dish towel.

Unless we're entertaining I do most of my dishwashing by hand - for lots of reasons that make sense to me, though I know I'm very much in the minority these days.

After decades of having double-bowl sinks I got a large, single soapstone farmhouse sink and I love it! I would never go back to a double. I love everything about using it, from the depth to the height to the size. I can set my largest Dutch ovens in it to soak and it will accommodate my largest baking sheets and serving trays.

I keep a Rubbermaid dishpan and matching rubber mat and dish drainer in the cabinet right under the sink. I fill the pan with hot, soapy water to wash, do my rinsing on the other half of the sink, and set the mat and dishpan on the countertop so that excess water runs off the mat and into the sink to drain.

I have casement windows right down to the counter over my sink looking out to a beautiful view. I can wash my dishes, dry and put them away in little time. Then I just rinse/dry the pan, wipe the mat and stash them all away beneath the sink.

I have a single farmhouse sink with a grid. I love it. I just put the few things I hand wash on one side to dry or drain. Works great.

Hi.

We're not in our new kitchen yet, but I constantly have a few baby sized bowls, spoons & sippy cups drying. Knowing we'd be in this phase for several more years, I opted for a single bowl farmhouse sink, but added runnels in the adjacent soapstone. Don't know if that is an option with your situation.

{{!gwi}}

HTH,
Katie

I am so glad you posted this ktrud. I was just about to ask a similar question.

I am really tired of seeing my dish drain sitting on the counter and I am going to change my ways if my new kitchen ever materializes. I have always had double bowls but one of my big gripes about my current kitchen is the tiny double bowl sink. If I make a mistake selecting the new sink and can't fit my baking sheets in there, I am going to be so mad at myself.

Don't want to hijack but ccoombs - Can you show me a picture of the dish drainer you mentioned?

I use the same method as "amck" - wash basin in sink and rack & mat on counter - and it works great for me. I always put the dishrack under the sink as soon as I'm finished. I also had a double-bowl sink for 26 1/2 years and now have a large single bowl which I absolutely love. And, for some reason I also hand-wash most of my dishes even though I have a new dishwasher. (In fact I didn't use my new Miele dishwasher for the first two weeks until my DH started asking if I was ever going to use it.)

I have no regrets switching from double-bowl to a large single bowl sink.

one of my reasons for getting a farmhouse sink was because I don't do dishes. I put everything in the DW. Unless its a huge platter that won't fit and then the large farmhouse sink comes in handy.

Once in a while my husband will fill the sink up with suds and a few things and then jsut rinse them there and lay them on towels.

I have a copper farmhouse sink with double bowl and I can't imagine not having two sides! I often soak things in one side and then have the other side free to use for "whatever".
If you have an option. Go for the dbl bowl one.
Happy Kitchen planning!

christine

Seldom handwash anymore.

wedgwood china, knives, dishes, pots, pans, everything goes into the asko + electrasol. comes out far cleaner than what i could do by hand. uses a lot less water too...

only heavily oiled or burnt food pans get scrubbed by hand.

I would set things in the dishwasher to drip out for a few minutes and then set onto a towel on the counter to dry all the way. I loved my 36" single bowl farmhouse sink. I now have a small double sink and hate it.

Thanks everyone! I also put EVERYTHING in the DW; pots, pans, baking sheets...any big stuff goes in unless it's super yucky & needs soaking...then it just sits on the counter. I'm thinking the one big bowl would be nice for that (since our main sink is on our island). But we do always have kids cups (plastic, don't really like putting them in DW daily) so maybe I could do the dishrack right in the sink like some of you mentioned.

Does anyone have a photo of their dish drainer? I like the idea of the runnels in the soapstone, but since it's on our island I think it would be too cramped their...thanks again everyone!!

I have a 36" Shaw's sink. Since I use the DW for almost all my dishes, anything I am forced to handwash I just set on a towel laid out next to the sink. I do keep a dishpan in the sink, it corrals the dishes before I load the DW.

For folks with large kitchens, having two DW's is a wonderful thing... My cooking pots and salad bowls are hand-wash only, so my usual after-dinner cleanup is to load one DW first, then do the hand-wash items and set them in the other DW to dry. Next day, unload the 2 DWs and reverse. And when we entertain, clean-up is SO easy!

I have another question to pose to single-bowl owners...do all of you that have a farmhouse or single-bowl sink have a second sink for prepping? I have always had a double bowl because when I'm cooking, I have soapy water on one side, and the garbage disposal is on the other. I kind of wash things up as I go (the plastics like measuring cups, strainers etc. also knives) I do not have a prep sink, so I don't know if I could get by with a single bowl. My laundry room sink is 33" long, 9 1/2" deep, so I have it if I need to soak extra large items.

Also, even with a double bowl, I still let some items drain on a towel on the counter, like large skillets. In fact I hand wash most all pots/pans but dry and put away immediately.

I spent a great deal of time on this topic. I looked forever for a double bowl sink that had a large right side bowl and medium sized left side bowl for a dish drainer. I found one eventually! And it is being delivered on Tuesday. It's from the U.K. Here's a photo and here's the link to their site. The sink wasn't expensive, but then you have to add the cost of shipping. It's handmade fireclay like the apron style sinks . . . but it's a drop in style. I know many go for the undermount or apron style these days. But I also hear that the edges of the soapstone or granite can get beat up from pots, etc banging them. I am staying in an apartment in NYC temporarily and the apt has an undermount sink with granite. I can totally see the potential for smacking the edge and chipping it. I don't like to live with that kind of stress, so for me the drop in is a welcome choice. Good luck with yours!

http://www.sinks.co.uk/Ceramic-Sinks/Sherbourne-large-inset-farmhouse-1.75-bowl-kitchen-sink.html

The bowl on the left is 12.79" (perfect for a dish drainer) and the bowl on the right is 20.66" (as large as my single bowl sink currently). It is 8.85" deep

I must admit that I also have a huge farmhouse sink on legs in an adjacent area. I call it my garden sink because it's main purpose will be to wash veggies. The single bowl is 4 feet wide and is 10" deep. So on the rare occasion that I have something to wash that doesn't fit in the main sink because it's bigger than 20.66", then I do have the monster sink to wash it in.

I have another question to pose to single-bowl owners...do all of you that have a farmhouse or single-bowl sink have a second sink for prepping? I have always had a double bowl because when I'm cooking, I have soapy water on one side, and the garbage disposal is on the other. I kind of wash things up as I go (the plastics like measuring cups, strainers etc. also knives)

Good question. I only have the one large sink but no disposal (septic). I do all of my prep before I start cooking, and I put my plastics, strainers, and even my good knives right into the dishwasher (I'm a dishwasher darwinist -- survival of the fittest!) therefore I don't have any interference in the sink.

If I were able to have a garbage disposal I might have put in a prep sink just for that.

We will not have a prep sink, just the one sink in our kitchen...and our disposal as well. This is a concern of mine, with one drain...can you have an offset drain?

I guess at this point I am leaning towards the double bowl Kohler - I haven't read too many bad things about it, but I can't imagine having dishes out on my island counter since it's our breakfast island as well...thanks for all the thoughts!!

We went with a single bowl farm sink when we re-did the kitchen. I was all stressed out about going from double to single, but would not have been able to fit in a dishwasher with a double-bowl sink.

Now that we are done, I love, love, love the single bowl sink. It's big enough to wash pans, shelves from the fridge, whatever. I would never go back to a double bowl.

I try to hand dry things, since it's usually just a knife or two and a few pots and pans. I use a lot of tupperwear, though, that never dries out in the dishwasher and is hard to hand dry (the awesome telescoping bowls? Perfect for my finace's yogurt in his lunches!)

Most of our stuff goes in the dishwasher, except for my knives and pans, which are not dishwasher safe. Sometimes I set little things on our wire sink grid - although, I always end up getting them wet again when filling up the britta, etc.

I bought a trivet-thing from Ikea, that I use for hot pans and then when I need to dry something, I just cover it with a dishtowel and set the pans on it. I like that it dries from the top and bottom, and that the towel that I sit the wet stuff on doesn't get sopping wet. It's perfect - I hate dish drying racks and we don't like to have a lot of stuff sitting around on the counter. This is a 2 birds with one stone solution that we like!

Here is a link that might be useful: Ikea trivet

I have another question to pose to single-bowl owners...do all of you that have a farmhouse or single-bowl sink have a second sink for prepping? I have always had a double bowl because when I'm cooking, I have soapy water on one side, and the garbage disposal is on the other. I kind of wash things up as I go (the plastics like measuring cups, strainers etc. also knives)

Single sink with disposal here. No other sink. I bought an over the sink collander (mine is a cheapie from Ikea that happened to fit across), and that keeps the veggies and the dishes out of each other's way.

I have only one sink, but I keep a dishpan in one end for the dishes so I can use the other end for everything else.

Ktrud,

Is the reason you hand wash the plastics is that they don't really dry? We had that issue in our last house, and we even bought the dishwasher - didn't know that it was an issue for the super efficient Bosch we purchased. When we moved to our current home, we saved for a Miele that also dried the plastics - while the Bosch stated that it dried, there was no vent, so the moisture would evaporate off the items that would absorb heat like glasses and dishes, while plastics don't retain internal heat the way natural material does, so would not help with the water evaporating off of them. They would sit there wet. I guess what I am saying is that if you are redoing your kitchen and haven't chosen a dishwasher yet, you should research current models that do a good job of drying plastics. Of course, you could always get two small, small dishpans and a mini drainer, and set them up when needed on the door of the dishwasher (mess/water stays there) for your children to "wash the dishes" - they'd love it and it would solve your problem of where to dry the dishes in a fun, teaching way! You would need to live with an open dishwasher for a while, but it would solve the issue of where to leave them drying. Me, I'm glad we saved for a Miele.

I know I'm in the minority here. I like doing all my dishes, pots and pans by hand (but it's just DH & I) and then I put them all in the dishwasher to dry. Out of sight and always clean. I do run it about once a week or so just to keep it functional. There's something about sitting on a stool with my hands in warm soapy water looking out the window that I enjoy. I never would have done this when my kids lived at home, too many dishes and not enough time.

We have the Blanco Silgranite Super Single Sink with an offset drain on the right side. I LOVE having the bigger sink. The things that I can put into it to wash! My giant LC Dutch Oven is a breeze.

For hand washing, I rinse on the side of the drain and put item off to left in sink. Then when all items are rinsed, I soap them up and let them sit to the right as I go. Then I rinse and set them back to the left side of the sink to drip dry. In the beginning we did not have a drain rack, but DH couldn't get the hang of how to stack to dishes to dry, so he bought a drain rack that fits into the left side of the sink.

Unfortunately, we both get lazy and don't put the drain rack back under the sink so it stays there in the left side of the sink - which takes away from the beauty of my lovely sink - which I knew would happen when DH came home with the rack. I guess I need to stop being so lazy! ;^D

I personally can't stand dishes set out to dry on the counter. At least in the deep sink you can hardly see them there when we do leave them to dry.

We do put almost everything in the dishwasher except for the few items we use everyday. So there's a couple of things a day that are hand washing jobs.

So maybe I'll look at one with an offset drain - do any of you have disposals? I think it will be wierd with one drain in such a large sink, but I guess I'd get used to it!

I don't like putting plastics in daily cause their cups/bowls take up so much space, and there's just always one or two hangin out by the sink each day!

I have a feeling if we got a large sink we'd get a dishrack to put on the left side of it...

OT but how hard is it to keep these sinks clean? Have always had a stainless and love how easy it is to maintain! no mess, and if it looks gross I just scrub it down with BKF and it sparkles!

We have a 30" single bowl farm sink with a grid. We will have an additional prep sink, but we haven't installed that yet, so we have been living with just the one sink. Having had a double sink, well, forever, I am totally in love with this single bowl concept! I actually don't mind doing dishes because I have the room to do them.

It doesn't hurt that my cheap-o eBay dishwasher cleans like nothing I've ever had! Right now, I am a happy, happy camper!

Ktrud, another vote for single bowl. We used to have a *small* double bowl sink and there is no comparison. I do have the luxury of having a prep sink as well.

Like Katie, we have soapstone counters and we did a recessed drainboard. I have a foldaway dish drainer that fits neatly under the sink when not in use. Here's a pic.

This is what it looks like without dishes...

We also have an over the sink drainer if one of us is using the farmhouse sink for prep (like this one except ours is red):

{{!gwi}}

Eliz

Oh and I meant to say that I LOVE that sink, Judy! I've seen it before, and man, is that one beautiful piece of porcelain.

Eliz

Thanks for the photos elizpiz! I really like the idea of the drainboard in the counter, but we are on our island and I think it'll be too cramped for space...saw a single bowl Kohler today - it was beautiful! Also saw a nice double bowl, but boy was that single bowl roomy! Kohler doesn't give a choice where drain can go - only in center...maybe one of the other brands would be better (Shaw?)...this one was around $1000...is shaw much more? Guess I'll be looking!

I use a dish rack to dry on the side counter. It folds up to put away when dishes are done.

I also have a Dishmaster faucet for washing. Very convenient so I could leave them in a rack in the sink if I wanted.

How about a drying drawer that pulls out next to the sink. All your hand washed dishes can dry in there out of sight. You could have your dishwasher on one side of the sink, and the dish drying drawer on the other side.

I just bought a house with a single basin farm sink and I absolutely HATE doing dishes in it!!!! No matter what option you come up with, it’s twice as many steps as with two basins. If you want to save yourself a world of frustration get a double basin.

Chris:

The days of you scraping and washing and your sister drying and putting away are childhood memories as well as double bowl sinks. They are called "dishwashers" these days. You put unscraped plates in, hit the button, and put away in less than an hour.

I run a sink replacement business. 98% of my customers order single bowl sinks. Occasionally a low divide. Several years and hundreds of customers later, not one has regretted their decision.

I am in the same camp as @Chris Hunter because I don't know how I could operate with only one large bowl. I think there are several problems with these oft repeated blanket statements that a single large bowl is always better than a double bowl.

1. There are other options than everyone's stereotype of an equally divided double bowl with small sinks on both sides. There are 60/40 or 70/30 sinks.

2. There is the option of getting a low divide.

3. Not everyone has the luxury of having an additional prep sink. Everyone always discusses nothing more than how to wash and where to dry. This is not the only use for a sink. How does one accomplish soaking a dirty pot, draining a pot of pasta, having some water to wipe down a stovetop, washing grimy produce, rinsing fish filets, and washing hands all at the same time with only a one bowl sink and one drain?

Love my single bowl and would never go back. I have a ledge-type workstation sink and unroll one of those metal and silicone mats over it when I have something to air dry. If your sink is large enough that won’t interfere with use of rest of sink. I do prefer offset drain. Could also get small pull out rack for u dear sink.